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(CFOZone) By Matthew Quinn
Youth in the workplace is a blessing and a curse. There's a fine line between being a go-getter and impetuousness.
The X and Y Generations have a particularly bad reputation for wanting it all now. But, as the Baby Boomers hit retirement age, companies increasingly have to look for its next group of leaders and that means putting some of those fresh faces on a career fast track.
A new CareerBuilder survey of more than 5,200 workers shows that is indeed happening - and that it's not without its problems. Forty-three percent of workers ages 35 and older said they currently work for someone younger than them. And more than half (53 percent) of workers ages 45 and up said they have a boss younger than them, followed by 69 percent of workers ages 55 and up.
Taking orders from someone younger than you can be tough to swallow. For workers between 25 and 34 years old, 16 percent said they find it difficult to take direction from a boss younger than them. Who knows? They probably think they should be in charge.
The percentage of those feeling the same way dips to 13 percent for workers ages 35-44. Only 7 percent of workers ages 45-54 and 5 percent of workers ages 55 and up indicated they had difficulty taking direction from a younger boss.
Of course, as you get older, the chances of working for someone younger than you increase. Additionally, if you're 28 and working for someone younger than you, it's probably tougher than if you're 55 and your boss is 50.
But this issue is no doubt weighing on some Baby Boomers. In recent years we've seen movies like "In Good Company," where Dennis Quaid's character struggles reporting to a boss half his age. Of course, those struggles are exacerbated by said-boss dating his teenaged daughter. And even one of this year's Oscar nominees for Best Picture, "Up In The Air", tackles the issue as a recent Cornell grad has the nerve to try to revolutionize a business George Clooney's character believes he has already perfected.
In the CareerBuilder survey, workers spelled out some of the reasons why working for someone younger than them can be a challenge. The reasons included their boss acting like they know more than them; their boss acting entitled; not feeling as if their boss earned their position; their boss's tendency to micromanage; their boss favoring younger workers; and the failure of their boss to give enough direction.
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